Except that many people do not have power line network capability configured, and in some cases (like apartments and condos) might not even be able to even use it. Wi-Fi on the other hand is pretty much universally used in homes that have home networking configured so things like laptops, tablets, smart-phones, and game consoles can connect.Reply

I think the big thing is that WiFi is cheaper to implement than power line adapters right now. Having a smart plug protocol talk over power cables doesn't mean you already have a power line network already in place. I don't see why apartments couldn't use it either.Reply

About 9 years ago I bought a cheap mains adapter for £9 from a high street store that displayed, Volts, Amps, Power-Factor, True-Watts on its LCD display. It had enough resolution to monitor appliances sipping little power, eg laptop on standby. Since then I have been looking for a similarly priced version that can store that same data in a small buffer memory, for readout over Bluetooth to a Smartphone or laptop, without success.. I suspect the reason D-Link are charging almost 4 times the price is partly due to use of WiFi, whereas Bluetooth is a far cheaper, and more appropriate network for a 'IoT' node. With absolutely zero spec as to its Power Monitoring capability, my guess is, along with some other recent launches, it only measures current, merely 'assuming' a fixed voltage in calculating power; without measuring actual voltage, and most importantly, 'Power Factor', the 'power' figure will be near worthless, i.e. not a SmartPlug ! It is also not encouraging to see its spec sheet states it consumes upto 5W - which is more than the idle power of my Haswell ULV miniPC !

If you follow the link and read the spec page, you can read it does at least have a on/off button, but as I wrote above, there is nothing in the spec sheet to commend it as a useful energy monitor, especially as it consumes upto 5W for itself.Reply